So a group of friends and myself went out this weekend to go on a sketching trip just north of San Francisco. It was meant to be a productive day of drawing and painting, but ended up being a day of getting lost and figuring out directions, with a bit of drawing and painting...a fun day nonetheless. We initially drove to Sausalito, then left to head over to the John Muir Woods National Park, which ended up just being a fun ride in the WRX, because when we got there, it was too cold and dark to even draw anything! We then headed back across the Golden Gate to have some pizza in SF. The night was capped with watching You Tube videos on an iPhone on the way home while driving on 101...real safe!

We all agreed that we will make an attempt to make a day like this regularly, and possibly create a blog for us participating. I will post a link to the blog or any other sketch day work if it becomes a reality. Until then, be sure to check out my Gooood Links to the right, and stop by at Enrique Jacobo and Chris Jacobs art blogs.

Lucy's first ride across the Golden Gate!Quick sketch off of a pier in Sausalito.Quick sketch of house across the street from the cafe where we had some brunch. Apparently they dont serve Chai tea there...A caricature of Mike as a demo for Enrique.A cool Seagull who was a great model and held this pose for about 30 min. while I drew him!

Once again, another late post from earlier this semester. This time we were given character designs, and a background on the story, but were free to edit the dialog any way we liked. I had fun with this one, and got to watch some really cool western movies for reference...

This was my first assignment for my storyboarding class this semester, my teacher, Jeff Biancalana provided the character designs for the assignment, which I posted a while back. We were to stick to a short script written by Jeff and use the character designs to board a 40 panel scene. I barely figured out how to get all these panels onto a few sheets, but it's up nonetheless!

So this is the final for my senior seminar class, you can read the story below. Basically, this story is about a starrving artist, living in a post WWII time period, who finds a piece of chalk, and whenever he draws something on the wall, it comes to life. His name is Argon and he lives in San Francisco's Chinatown. The artist's style is John Nevarez, let me know what you think...

Finals are here, so this is the home stretch! My final for my BFA Senior Seminar class is a short story written by a Japanese Author. The story is about a young man who is poor, and starving. He has sold everything in is apartment except for a chair, just to make some money. One day, on the brink of starvation, he finds a piece of chalk in his pocket. Since the boy is also an artist, he begins to draw food on the walls of his apartment, in an attempt to mentally satisfy his hunger. To his surprise, the items he draws on the walls become real. The items disappear however, when light is let into the room. He begins to create all the things he can use, even some money. He goes through a phase of creating his own world in his apartment, and as long as he keeps light out of the room, it all becomes real. Eventually, the chalk leads him to his demise, and he becomes part of the wall himself.

The story seems a bit hard to fathom to me, so I added a bit of a twist to it. Aside from setting it in San Francisco's Chinatown post WWII, Argon becomes so hungry and desperate, that he becomes psychotic, and the whole chalk thing is just a figment of his imagination, a la Fight Club.

The final concept work is due on Tuesday, but here is a sketch I did of Argon that I really liked, so I thought I'd post for a quick preview, just in case some followers or regular visitors of my blog actually exist! Enjoy!

PS- The work is going to be done in the style of John Nevarez, yet another great artist's style that I will be mimicking this semester.

So for the second assignment in my senior seminar class this semester, we had to read a poem about the Black Plauge in the 14th Century, and also take a visit to the Leonardo Da Vinci Exhibit currently at the Tech Museum here in San Jose. Our job was to design a world that incorporates both, but we were free to determine a time period, as long as we combined the plague and Da Vinci.

The poem we had to read was about 4 young women and 4 young men, who in an attempt to escape the black plague, flee the city of Florence to a country home, miles away, and secluded from the pestilence. The characters I chose to design were the two middle aged characters, a servant, and the young man's pet Falcon. As for the city shots, I based my story in Venice in the later 16th century, and they escape to a country home up in northern Italy, where Filostrato builds a home that is full of modern day amenities, using technology based on the inventions of the late Leonardo. It was definitely a challenging project, but fun nonetheless. This is my establishing shot of the plagued city of Venice. The characters on the bridge are the Plague doctors, who dressed in a long cloak, and wore a long bird-like beak-mask. I was attempting to show a city that has lost hope, is in ruins almost, but not sure if I quite nailed that...

Establishing shot of the country home that the characters escape to. The location I chose was above a river, in the middle of the forest. The idea was that the house was equipped with a type of hydraulic lift that could lift it from the ground, making it difficult for intruders to disturb them. Although they have escaped to the country, there is still a fear of the plague catching up to them.

My designs for the country home. Filostrato was highly inspired by Leonardo, and incorporated things like a water tower, an elevator, a cable car that trnsports people from above using a cable, heating and cool, and a drawbridge to name a few. These would all be made possible by engineering a set of gears and pulleys, operated by the main windmill, dipped in the river below the house. Kinda crazy, but fun. I had some trouble getting the perspective right, so I mocked up a 3D model for reference...

A line up of my four main characters.

As I mentioned before, Filostrato was highly inspired by Leonardo's genius inventions, and attempted to build upon them by incorporating them into his own home creations. He is also a bit of a clutz, a la Tim the Toolman Taylor, and has an overall optimistic view of the plague,.

Filomena is a bit of an alcoholic, as she is always seen with her goblet, always topped with a fine wine. She does not believe they will be able to evade the plague much longer, and has become a bit of a depressing person to be around. A woman who takes advantage of her royalty status among the household, Filomena is not the most liked in the country home, but also can care less about what the others say or think.

Licisa is Filomena's servant, and hates everyone and everything. She hates her life, and is even more depressing than Filomena. I picture her as an Eeyore character, just waiting to be noticed someday, or even cared about...

Ettore is Filostrato's best friend, his right hand man. Confident, and very strong, Ettore is the lookout for the household, making sure to spot all invaders from an aerial view.

This is my first time really paying attention to politics and the election. I have to admit that I normally don't care enough to watch or research, but I promise from now on I will! Considering the magnitude of this election, I think I chose a good time to start, no?

BTW, here are some sketches I did while watching Obama Barack 'n Roll all over McCain!

This is Rosie, the Elephant. She becomes the Benzini Brothers' biggest attraction, and also a main character of the story, she was one of my favorite!

Uncle Al is the ringmaster and the person responsible for running the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. He immediately got my imagination running with a physical description, so a design of him was a must.

Since I have been neglecting this blog, I will get you up to speed on my progress of my BFA senior seminar class. We were given the book, Water For Elephants, to read. Our goal was to use this book as a visual companion to our first project. The story in a nutshell revolves around the Benzini Brother Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a traveling circus during the great depression. Behind the wonderful facade of the circus, the story takes you on a journey that involves a love triangle, murder, and deception. A must read!

The class is separated into 4 groups: 3D Modeling, Animation, Story, and Visual Development. Since my focus this semester will be character design, I belong to the Visual Development crowd. Unfortunately, this also means that I am in the group with the biggest workload. My next post will be some first passes of a couple of the character designs. We were given a list of artist's styles to mimic, and I chose the style of Sean Galloway (gotcheeks.blogspot.com). A great artist with a nice clean drawing style rich with flowing lines and beautiful shapes. I will try my best to make my character designs even come close to his! I will post more as soon as I have them ready...peace!